A spider's Last Web
by WhiteravenGreywolf
Summary: About twenty after the second fall of Talon, all the former members of Overwatch are going missing. Their children are desperately looking for them, but with little to no help, they mostly run into trouble. Until they are saved by an unlikely ally, a forgotten spider with a debt to pay. Sequel to 'My Greatest Everything'.
1. Prologue: Old Friendship Dies Hard

A/N: Hey guys! Hope you're redy for a story 18 months in the making! (it doesn't show, though) Just a quick heads up, this story is a direct sequel to 'My Greatest Everything', so if you haven't read the story, I highly suggest you do. It will feature the same characters and continue on the storyline hinted at in the last chapter. You can come back once you're done reading it. For everyone else, welcome back!

This is a story I first tried to write almost as soon as I finished the previously mentioned 'My greatest Everything', but I stopped very quickly. The story was too spread out, there were too many central characters and it just didn't work. I had given up on it completely, until I received a comment on another one of my stories featuring the Overwatch kids. After exchanging a few messages with the person, I finally had that change of point of view I needed to make this story work (or work in the best of my abilities). So thank you, commenter over on AO3, I would have never given another shot to this story without you!

As usual, you should follow the story if you don't want to have to keep track of the posting schedule. Starting next week for this story it will be on Mondays and Thurdays. Today you guys are lucky, you get both the prologue and the fist chapter! Also, feel free to leave a review, it's free for you and a ton of joy for me! Hope you'll enjoy!

* * *

**Prologue**  
Old Friendship Dies Hard

The café had been busy the entire time she'd been there. People had come and gone, but no one had approached her. Her coffee had grown cold quite a while back, but it didn't matter. She took a small sip every once in a while. The omnic waiter had proposed to change it for a warmer one, but she'd refused.

She showed no sign of interest when the chair across from hers was pulled. She didn't even look up from her book when someone sat down there. Only an old familiar voice got her attention:

"Only a relic would read a physical book."

She smirked and replied:

"Or someone with taste."

She finally closed off the book and placed it on the table. Through the sunglasses, her amber eyes found the older woman on the other side. Long gone was the time they were the same age, though it was hard to tell. Only graying hairs and a few wrinkles betrayed her former ally's real age.

"You took your time," she declared.

The woman on the other side of the small table smiled with that oh so familiar smirk.

"Twenty years ago you wouldn't have even waited that long. You're going soft, araña."

She pulled her sunglasses up on her head and gave the older woman a cold stare.

"I don't have any reason to hide. You, on the other hand, I heard some things here and there."

"What kind of things?"

"Like you don't already know. Information is your domain, Olivia."

"Then you know exactly why I called you."

She picked up her cold coffee cup and finally emptied it.

"I didn't do it, in case you were wondering."

"I know you didn't. But if Talon has contacted you..."

"Talon is dead."

"You and I both know it never died. Talon is coming back, and this time they learned from their lesson."

"I'm not going back to Talon if that's what you wanted to ask. Even to spy on them. I'm not going anywhere near their mess ever again."

"I wouldn't ask you to. But, Amélie..."

Her old friend fetched a small envelope out of her jacket pocket and placed it inside her book.

"This is serious. Everyone is disappearing. I'm onto something but they'll find everyone eventually, including you and me. Maybe me before you. You don't scare them anymore. But they do fear me."

She pursed her lips and leaned back. Amélie opened her book to take the envelope out and open it.

"Satya and I have done everything in our power to protect her, but when we disappear I'm afraid she's going to do something stupid."

Amélie smirked.

"She wouldn't be her mother's daughter if she didn't."

"Precisely. Talon won't come after you, you're no threat to them."

Amélie opened the envelope to find a picture inside. A quick glance told her everything she needed to know. Seven teenagers, all very much their parents' children indeed.

"Keep an eye on them for me. For us."

"I can't promise you anything, but should things become too hot, they'll have a web to catch them. Before they fall too deep."


	2. Worth a Cup of Tea

**Chapter 1**  
Worth a Cup of Tea

Passing customs had been a challenge for Wei. Not that he had never taken the plane or visited another country, but his companion never had the most trustworthy face, and one of his many talents was to unsettle customs officers.

"Hum... any alcohol or..."

The agent's face went nervously to Roadhog's mask, then to the computer in front of him, and back to Roadhog. Wei decided to take the matter in his own hands.

"No, sir."

At first, he wondered if the officer had heard him. However, the officer asked another question, just as nervously as before:

"The reason of your... hum... trip?"

"Tourism," Wei claimed.

"Alright... So hum... how long will you be staying?"

"Two weeks," he lied.

"Good. You can proceed."

Wei was about to move past the gate but the large and heavy hand of Roadhog fell on his shoulder, holding him in place. Wei could see the officer paling. It only took an exchange of looks for Wei to understand what was going on.

"Oh right, our passports."

The officer looked in front of him, and indeed their Australian passports were still there.

"Oh, sorry."

He passed under the window, and Roadhog picked them up, placing them in his pocket.

"Have a nice... stay?" the officer tried.

Roadhog only nodded with a groan, and they passed the gate.

They made their way to the luggage reception, and Wei could see heads turning all around them, staring at his bodyguard. The large old man ignored them all and stopped in front of the conveyor belt. Wei stood by his side, his heart beating loudly in his chest. They had come here to get answers, and hopefully find his parents, and the fear and anticipation were slowly eating at him.

As they waited for their luggage, Roadhog glanced at the security camera beside them. Wei passed a hand through his messy chestnut hair and crossed his arms. Soon enough, their bags came rolling along the conveyor belt. Roadhog's was old and dirty, torn apart and sewed back carefully. He picked it up as if it wasn't heavy, the metal inside clicking loudly as he passed it over his shoulder. Wei picked up his own bag, a large duffel bag which he launched over his shoulder. Roadhog stared at him, and Wei shook his head.

"Don't worry, I can carry it."

The duo then made their way out of the international zone, and once they walked away from all the people waiting for their friends and family to arrive, Wei dropped his bag to the ground and placed it between his feet.

"Alright, let's take a shuttle downtown, then we can start lookin'."

Roadhog groaned, and Wei shook his head.

"I just slept, like, half of the flight. I don't need rest."

But Roadhog shook his head once again. He knew Wei had only pretended to sleep. The young man had had problems sleeping since his mother disappearance.

"Alright, how 'bout we drink some tea, and then we go downtown?"

Roadhog was about to shake his head, but Wei threw his bag on his shoulder and made his way to the closest coffee shop, ignoring his bodyguard. Roadhog followed begrudgingly.

Wei was already in the line when Roadhog joined him, taking up much of the space left in the small shop. When their turn came, Wei ordered two cups of tea and paid. Then, he went to take a seat right outside, only exchanging a glance with Roadhog, who understood he would be the one picking up their order.  
Wei found an empty table right outside the door, against the shop's window. He sat down, dropping his bag at his feet once again. He took his phone out of his pocket, intending to see if he had received any news from either of his parents. Suddenly the seat beside him was filled, and he knew it wasn't Roadhog, because the person had been as discreet as possible when they had sat down. He looked up, confused.

Beside him now sat a young woman, younger than him. He was instantly struck by the unsettling blue of her eyes, as she looked at him with confidence. Her long inky black hair, strewn with purple locks, was tied in a messy bun, and her natural hair color complemented perfectly her dark bronze skin.

"Neelam?"

"Sshh!"

She leaned toward him while looking around the airport.

"What are you doin' here? How d'ya know I was comin' over? Did your mom tell ya?"

She shook her head quickly.

"I'll get straight to the point. You need my help, and I need yours."

* * *

Back inside the coffee shop, Roadhog had finally received the two paper cups containing their orders. He, however, almost dropped them when he saw the young woman with piercing blue eyes seating awfully close to Wei, and his protégé looking rather confused. To anyone else, it would have looked like the girl was flirting with him and he didn't know what to reply, but Roadhog knew better. He took quick heavy steps to the table and dropped in the only chair left, placing the cups in front of him. The girl sparred him a glance, but seemed unimpressed by his size, unlike everyone else in this airport.

"It's a good thing you came, too."

Roadhog squinted at the girl as if trying to jog his memory up. He had seen her before, he was sure. She looked awfully familiar, but he really couldn't place her, and it bothered him greatly.

"As I was saying, things are a mess here. I assume you're here because of your parents?"

"How did you know?"

The girl smirked, and Roadhog felt chills run down his spine. This smirk, he had seen it before, and it could only mean trouble, he knew.

"I have my ways. All I can tell you right now is, they're not the only one. And, it's got to do with Overwatch... and Talon."

Wei was petrified to hear the criminal organization's name out loud.

"Who are you?" Roadhog asked.

Another smirk graced her lips.

"I'm kind of shocked you don't remember me. I know you didn't come to the past few barbecue events, but still."

Roadhog frowned. It was impossible, he knew, but the posture, the speech, even the smirks, they were all identical. He tried, anyway.

"Sombra?"

The girl shook her head.

"So close yet so far."

Wei quickly corrected him:

"It's Neelam. Sombra's daughter."

Roadhog fell silent as he tried to assimilate the new information. Indeed, he hadn't seen the girl in a few years, and she had grown quite a lot since then. Sometimes, he even forgot how old Wei was, and that he wasn't a little kid anymore. He was nineteen, almost twenty, and he was running a rescue mission.  
Neelam looked around once again, and something seemed to catch her attention in the crowd. Wei tried to follow her gaze but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"We have to move. I'll take you somewhere safe where we can talk more."

She jumped to her feet, taking his hand and pulling him with her. Roadhog stood up quickly, ready to pull his gun out of his bag.

"Hey wait!" Wei declared as he was pulled toward the exit. "What about the others?"

"I'll tell you later."

He nodded and they walked quickly out of the airport. Neelam led him around the main building and into the parking lot. Roadhog tailed behind them, his gaze quickly shifting from one side to the other.

What none of them noticed was the woman standing on the roof of a nearby hotel, observing them through the scope of her sniper rifle. She also didn't fail to notice the two unidentified vehicles waiting right outside the parking, and ready to follow the teenagers.

* * *

Neelam led them to an old red car, hovering lightly above the parking spot.

"Oh, you finally got your drivin' license," Wei noted.

"No," Neelam confessed.

When he sent her a worried look, she replied:

"Hey, dire situation here! Plus, I didn't crash on the way to pick you up, I can make it back no problem!"

Wei shook his head and replied:

"I'll drive. You tell me where to go."

She sighed but threw him the keys nonetheless. She jumped in the passenger seat, leaving Roadhog to take the backseat on his own, which he did silently. The car sunk a bit under his weight, but it kept on hovering. Wei climbed in the driver's seat and handed his travel bag to Neelam.

"Careful with it. There's an unfinished project in there, and it's highly explosive."

She shrugged.

"If it didn't explode in the plane..."

Wei rolled his eyes. He turned the key in the ignition, and the car came to life with a limited amount of protest. They exited the parking without any problem, and Wei took the highway leading toward the city. Neither of them noticed the two cars which started following them there.

"So, the others? Can you at least tell me that?"

"Charlie's with Alya and Amanda. He did like you, came here when his mom disappeared. No sign of the twins for the past few months. Either they're in hiding or..."

Wei pursed his lips and nodded. He hoped everyone else was fine. He glanced behind them. Nothing caught his eye.

"Do you know who's been kidnapped so far?"

"A lot of people. It'll be easier if I show you, I think. I've got this whole file of info on Talon, and what they're doing. My mom told me about it before they got her..."

"And your other mom?"

"Gone too."

He nodded.

"We're on our own, basically."

"Basically."

Wei glanced behind. A motorbike was zigzagging between the cars. It should pass them soon. He moved the car slightly to the right, to leave space for the bike. When it didn't pass them, and he couldn't see it anymore, he supposed it had gone between two cars or taken one of the exits.

"How did you know we were coming over?"

"One of my mom's virus was keeping an eye out for the members of Overwatch still in the wind. When Roadhog's name showed up on the passenger list, I saw yours too. I knew you'd come over eventually."

Suddenly, Wei heard a metallic click coming from under the car. Had he driven over some hazardous object on the roadway? The thought barely brushed his mind before he was violently thrown forward.

* * *

The explosion rang in his ears. He forced his eyes open, adrenaline coursing through his aching body, pushing the pain away. Beside him, Neelam was shaking the confusion away.

"Everyone alright?" he asked.

"We need to get out... now..."

He looked under him. The roof of the car was covered with small pieces of glass. His bag was laying under Neelam, untouched. Relieved washed over him. They may still have a chance.

He unstrapped his seatbelt and fell heavily against the car's roof. He pushed himself into a crouch and pulled his bag toward him. Once the bag was out of the way, Neelam undid her own seatbelt. She fell on her back with a painful huff.

The car-door on Wei's side was torn off its hinges, and Roadhog appeared on the other side. Wei caught his massive hand and he was pulled out of the car. On the other side, Neelam kicked her door open, and she crawled out. While she brushed herself off, Wei assessed the situation. The highway had cleared ahead of them, but there was no running away. Two big black vans had closed off the other side, and already a dozen agents were jumping out. Talon agents, dressed in black and red, with the T symbol on their jacket's sleeve.

Wei quickly opened his backpack and pulled his project out of it. It was a gun scrapped together from other gun pieces, with a long orange cross, a white visor, a mostly blue body, though some green pieces came to complement the whole thing. Neelam joined him around the car.

"What the hell is that?"

"My project."

He pointed it toward the Talon agents, who were all pointing their own weapons back at them.

"Maybe you should take a step back, in case it blows up..."

Neelam did move slightly to the side. Wei took in a deep breath, then pressed the trigger. Bright orange flames poured out of the nuzzle, forcing the agents back. One of their vans caught on fire, melting the front tire. A big line of flames was traced on the concrete, separating the two teenagers and their bodyguard with the agents.

"Maybe we should run?" Wei suggested as he expelled a small metal capsule out of the gun.

"There's too many of them. We won't go far..."

Neelam's eyes seemed to glow for a second. In her hand, light blue energy appeared, and soon enough, she was holding her mom's semi-automatic, the old purple relic clenched in her fist.

"You can't teleport us out of here?" Wei wondered.

"It takes time to create a teleporter, you know! I can't just summon it out of nowhere!"

Beside them, Roadhog had already pulled his gun out, ready to shoot any agent who'd come through the flames.

When one of them did, however, he was shot down in an instant. A dark figure had jumped up from the lower level of the highway with the help of a grappling hook and had perfectly aimed at the agent's head, shooting him down while still in mid-air. When she finally landed right in front of the teenager, she pulled her sunglasses up on her head and her snipper riffle shifted back to an automatic weapon. She looked behind her at the teenagers, her amber eyes falling on the girl, then the boy, then their bodyguards.

"Get behind me."

* * *

A/N: See you on Monday for chapter 2!


	3. Midday Spider, Worry

**Chapter 2**  
Midday Spider, Worry

Amélie had been following the teenagers and the Talon agents since they'd left the airport, and when she'd noticed the front van was equipped with a disk launcher, she knew exactly how they were going to proceed. She'd tailed them from underneath, ready to jump into action. She hadn't jumped and aimed in a while. Her more recent missions had mostly been stationary, but she found she hadn't lost it. A swell of pride filled her chest as the Talon agent fell motionless to the ground. However, it was replaced by worry when she saw the two teenagers. They had recognized her, even if they'd never met her before, even if her skin wasn't as purple as before. The Widowmaker was hard to forget.

"I know why you're here," she declared as she faced the Talon agents, "but consider these children under my protection."

The agents looked at each other, unsure whether they should pursue. Finally, they all moved forward, their weapons raised. Amélie nodded, and her sunglasses slid back into place.

"So be it."

She opened fire, blindly firing in the heap of agents and ran to hide behind the turned-over car, pulling both kids with her. They didn't protest, and soon enough they were all crouching between the car and the concrete wall marking the edge of the highway. Amélie turned around, deploying her sniper rifle and shooting twice before turning back to the kids.

"You need to get out of here, now!"

"How?!" Neelam replied.

Beside them, Roadhog had started firing as well, bits and pieces of metal flying everywhere and reaping through the mass of agents. Amélie shot down another agent then looked around. The other side of the highway had been completely deserted once the shootout had started. Some cars had been abandoned there.

"Take one of the cars on the other side."

Neelam and Wei scanned the few cars left there. They looked at each other. Neelam nodded.

"I can create a wall to protect us, but we'll have to be quick."

"Okay..."

Amélie shot down two other agents, then turned back to the teenagers.

"Go! Now!"

Neelam took a deep breath, then rolled out of their cover. As she pushed herself up, her hand hit the ground, leaving blue energy behind. A big light blue barrier rose from the point, covering most of the highway. She ran to the nearest car, Wei right behind her. Thankfully, the key was still in the ignition. She jumped in the driver's seat, Wei quickly climbing in the passenger seat. Roadhog trotted behind them, firing whenever he had the chance to the agents. He opened the backseat door. It was suddenly torn off the chassis. Both teenagers yelped in surprise as a massive metal net was fired straight onto Roadhog. He was pushed off against the concrete wall, trapped under the heavy net. Wei was about to jump out to help him out of it when Roadhog screamed:

"Go!"

Neelam didn't hesitate. She drove off, sending Wei back into his seat before he could get out of the car. They drove back toward the airport, and Neelam took the first exit out of the highway, without even knowing where it would take her. Beside her, Wei was frantically looking back every few seconds.

"Take us back!"

Neelam clenched her fist around the steering wheel.

"Neelam!"

She ignored him, focused on the road ahead.

"We have to go back! Neelam! Now!"

"We can't."

"Neelam! We can't leave him behind! We have to save him!"

"We can't. Not right now."

Wei fisted his hands, and Neelam watched him warily. He was boiling with anger, ready to explode. Finally, he punched the dashboard, with such strength Neelam almost feared he would trigger the airbag. He let all of his pent-up rage out in a long, drawn-out sigh.

"You're right..."

His breath shook, and she expected him to cry. But he held in his tears, pushing the heel of his hands in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Neelam declared in a low voice.

"We'll get him back," Wei declared, like a promise to himself.

* * *

Neelam parked the car in the middle of some apartment complex. Wei had been silent for the rest of the ride. She turned toward him, about to ask him whether he was alright when he climbed out of the car on his own. She sighed but climbed out as well.

"Our base of operation isn't far," she said.

He simply nodded. He looked tired and just about ready to cry, barely containing himself.

Neelam picked up her gun from the dashboard and threw it on the ground. It shattered into a million light pieces and evaporated in the air. She was tempted to take the keys out of the ignition, however, it was rather useless, as one of the back doors was completely gone. She abandoned the car there.

She led him out of the parking lot and under an overpass, where little to no cars drove by. They followed the overpass to the north in silence, only stopping at red lights when necessary. Beside her, Wei was clutching his bag under his arm, as if he were afraid of losing it. They walked up to a broken down fence. Neelam pushed the metal fence aside and crawled under, then held it for Wei to pass as well.

"Almost there..."

She let go of the fence and turned around, about to lead Wei between a bunch of storage compartment, when they suddenly came face to face with a tall figure, waiting for them against a motorbike. Her skin looked gray, dead-like, or struggling to get its initial color back. Sunglasses topped black hair in a ponytail. Her amber eyes glanced at both the teenagers with annoyance. Her gun was resting on her back, clipped to her leather jacket.

"You kids don't know what you got yourself into," she said.

While Wei was mostly shocked and took his time to react, Neelam didn't hesitate. She raised her arms and called forth her gun once again, light blue energy taking form quickly until a semi-automatic was pointed at Amélie. The sniper chuckled.

"Please. If I wanted to kill you I would have done it when you two got out of the airport."

Still, Neelam didn't lower her weapon.

"Let me guess. Your mother taught you to be careful, to never trust anyone? She also should have taught you how to get a name or two out of a passenger list. And how to look behind you when you drive somewhere."

"What do you want?" Neelam finally asked.

"From you, nothing. Olivia asked me to keep an eye on you. She said you'd get into trouble quickly and she was right."

"Where's Roady?" Wei asked.

"Talon has him. I fell back shortly after you did. They pulled him in their truck and drove off. They were after him, not you, meaning you should be fine, as long as you stay put."

"Don't you work for Talon?" Neelam intervened. "You can help us get him back. Get everyone back."

"Are you sure these are the kind of conversation you want to have in public?"

Neelam bit her lip but finally lowered her gun. She handed it to Wei and pulled a key out of her pocket. With it, she opened the storage compartment behind Amélie and threw the thin metal door up. There wasn't much inside. A few boxes labeled 'project' and 'old tech'. Some busted computer screens, some dismantled computer units. Even enough space for Amélie to pull her bike in. Once all three of them were inside, Neelam closed the door once again. She went to a small panel which looked like a fuse box and pressed the button inside. Wei was surprised as the ground shook under him, and slowly but surely, they made their way down.

Amélie smirked.

"Say what you will about Sombra, but she always knew how to hide her things."

When the elevator stopped, the trio found themselves in a large room, set up like an apartment. There was a living room with a big couch covered by an Indian blanket. A small kitchen in a corner. Two massive computers with five screens attached to each. A small cot against the wall.

"Let's get to work," Neelam declared.

Amélie shook her head.

"There is no work to do. You two will lay low for a while, and when this whole mess has passed, you'll get on with your life praying Talon will forget you."

"Oh, you mean like you did?" Neelam shot back.

Amélie smirked.

"Your mother's daughter indeed," she mumbled. "I'm not being paid to babysit you two on a rescue mission. In fact, I'm not being paid at all."

Neelam gritted her teeth but didn't reply. Instead, she pushed a few keys in one of the computers, and a projector turned off on the ceiling, projecting the screen on the wall. Pictures, all connected, floated on the concrete wall. Amélie recognized all of them quickly.

"These are all the people Talon has kidnapped so far. Nineteen. With Roadhog, that's twenty. Twenty members of Overwatch kidnapped. That's almost everyone. We can't buy our time here and expect someone to come to help us. It's too late for that. We have to do something. You work for Talon. Help us."

"I don't work for Talon," Amélie replied quickly.

She moved closer to the wall and looked at all the portraits in more details. Both Sombra and Symmetra were up there. Tracer. Mercy. Pharah. McCree. Genji. Mei. Even Winston.

"There's only three of us and an army of them. And neither of you know how to fight."

Before either of the teenagers could object she added:

"Neither of you have ever pointed a gun to someone and pressed the trigger. Neither of you are formed to the art of war."

"Neither were you when you started," Neelam pointed out.

The glint in Amélie's amber eyes told her she'd gone too far, but the teenager didn't regret for an instant.

"I won't babysit a couple of teenagers to war."

"We can handle ourselves!" Neelam shouted back.

"If you could, we wouldn't be here, having this conversation."

Amélie walked back to the elevator and pressed the hidden switch on the ground with her heel.

"I'll be back later with dinner. I'll just assume you two like pizza."

She watched as Neelam glared at her from the edge of the elevator. She would have looked threatening if she didn't only have half of Symmetra's commanding aura. Instead, it was melted with Sombra's playfulness and she simply looked like a toddler being denied one more piece of chocolate.

Once back in the storage compartment, Amélie let out a sigh and leaned against the nearby wall. What a mess these children had gotten themselves into indeed. They were ill-equip, ill-prepared and far too naive for any sort of rescue mission. Talon was trying to get rid of all former Overwatch agent because it was easier that way. Get the people who'd taken you out the first and second time out of the way, and third time should be a breeze. Especially if those people were now old and out of shape, and they hadn't seen active duty in five, ten, or even twenty years. She doubted McCree would have been so easily caught if he hadn't settled down. The odds of them still being alive were slim, at best.

She pushed herself off the wall. Still, she owed them her life, no matter how miserable of a life it was. Without some of these idiots, she would have been executed, end of discussion. But they had persevered, helped her heal physically and mentally from what Talon had done to her. She owed them to try.

She opened the door to the storage room and pushed her bike out. Once the door was closed behind her, she climbed on her motorbike. She knew the location of an old Talon base in town, one they hadn't used since Gen I Talon. Maybe it had been reactivated. She decided to do a bit of recon, and check, just in case. She turned the bike on and drove off.

* * *

Amélie returned to the storage compartment as the sun was setting over the horizon. She'd gone to the old Talon base, but it was empty. She'd searched every nook and cranny, every possible secret entrance, but there was absolutely nothing besides an empty warehouse, and a few omnics hiding there. She'd stopped to a nearby pizzeria to by dinner, and had returned to the storage while juggling three boxes of pizza. Those kids better be grateful for everything she'd done for them.

She went down into the hideout, and as soon as the walls disappeared around her she declared:

"Let's make one thing clear, I will not spend the next month bringing you food every night, so I hope one of you knows how to cook."

No answers came. The elevator came to a stop, and Amélie found the hideout empty and silent. One of the computer screens was showing off a location, taken from a long list of known Talon bases Sombra must have compiled. No sign of Neelam or Wei, not even a note. Amélie let out a long, angry breath.

"Je déteste les enfants..."

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! I'm going to assume I don't need to translate that last line. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you on Thursday for the next chapter!


	4. Meet the Widowmaker

**Chapter 3**  
Meet the Widowmaker

It took Amélie no time at all to track the two teenagers down. In fact, they mustn't have left more than an hour before she'd returned. She found them making their way downtown to a closed car rental store to steal a vehicle. With her grappling hook, she jumped on top of a nearby building and watched Neelam hack et car open with ease. She could've jumped them there, but she decided to watch from afar for now. She wanted to see what they were going to do. Plus, stalking her preys was still the best part of the job.

She followed on her motorbike from afar, never losing sight of them once. She didn't know why, but she was rather disappointed that they hadn't found her. Hadn't they remembered anything she'd told them after their highway escape?

They left town through the interstate and rolled for almost an hour, all the way to an abandoned military base, one which hadn't been used since the soldier enhancement program. At least by the military. Talon had made it its own apparently, as Amélie quickly found out. At least the teens had the idea of parking in the bushes half a mile away from the base before any agent saw the car's headlight coming their way. Amélie imitated them, and followed her little preys through the woods, closer and closer to the nest to their enemies.

She was rather curious as to how they were going to handle the situation. There were guards patrolling around the perimeter, and probably a whole lot more of them inside. She assumed Neelam had a map. Sombra would have had a map, Amélie hoped the hacker had had the good idea of teaching her daughter at least that. She washed the two teenagers argue back and forth in whispers, crouched in the bushes. She could almost make out what they were saying, which was never a good thing.

Apparently, they'd left the base without a plan to follow. They were worst than amateurs. This whole thing was beneath her. Babysitting two wannabe heroes who couldn't even prepare before going into action. The worst possible usage of her new life.

As soon as a passing guard heard the two teenagers loudly whispering, he turned toward the bushes and inquired:

"Someone's there?"

He was rewarded by a bullet to the skull. As he fell back, both teenagers turned around. Amélie's sunglasses were glowing red, and so was the scope of her riffle. She moved the weapon away from her face and placed it on her back once again.

"How long have you been there?!" Neelam whisper-shouted at her.

"Long enough to know you two are not prepared."

"We were prepared!"

Amélie raised a single eyebrow in disbelief.

"We're not going back until we've made sure no one's inside," Wei added.

"I understood as much. But you two are not making it out of here alive, I hope you know it."

"Maybe not," Neelam conceited. "But we'll have more chance if you help us."

Amélie sighed.

"Fine. But you do as I say or I swear I will let you die."

"Deal."

* * *

Amélie took a few seconds to devise a plan from Neelam's map – thank god she had a map – and the few informations Sombra had collected on the place. She went ahead, grappling over the wall and gracefully landing there. There were a lot of agents there, from what she could tell, but they were keeping only one prisoner. The rest were medical facilities, doing all sorts of experimental stuff she'd rather not get close to.

She communicated as such to Neelam through the ear-piece she'd given her.

"Maybe it's Roady," she heard Wei suggest beside her.

"Doubtful. This is not his silhouette. No, this is someone smaller and a thiner. A lot thiner."

"Well, whoever this is, we have to get them out!" Neelam decided.

"Is your life worth so little that you would die trying to save one person?"

When Neelam replied with a stern silence, Amélie sighed.

"Fine."

She scoped the place once again. She couldn't snipe everyone on sight, not without being detected quickly. They'd have to be stealthy. She threw her grappling hook to the ground.

"Climb up," she instructed.

One after the other, the two teens made their way up, Neelam significantly quicker than Wei. The three of them were crouching on top of the wall, hidden behind a small wooden fence.

"You will follow me and you will do it quickly and silently, understood?"

They both nodded. Amélie stood up to make sure the coast was clear once again, then jumped down into a patch of high grass which hadn't been cleared out. Neelam jumped behind her, dropping like a stone and almost falling back against the wall. Wei was barely more graceful. So ill-prepared.

* * *

They quickly made their way around the camp. It was rather simple, actually, once Amélie had put aside that she had two useless loads to carry from one point to another, she found her groove again. Silently taking down one soldier after another was almost second nature. She kicked back and knocked down and strangled her way to the holding block, the teens dutifully following behind every time she told them to.

She prayed to any god that could hear her, in hope that one would actually hear her. Please, please make it so that Sombra will be the one in that cell. Please relieve me of that babysitting job. But of course, the gods had never listened to her before, why would they start now?

She took down the last of the agents in the holding cells, and the teenagers caught up to her.

"Alright, where is that prisoner?" she asked.

Neelam had been the first to notice him. He was bundled up in a corner of one of the cells, in fetal position, and pitifully sniffing every time he breathed.

"Charlie?"

When he heard his name being called, Charlie scrambled onto his feet and ran up to the door of the cell.

"Neelam! Please, please please please let me outta here!"

"That's why we're here for."

Neelam pulled out a phone-like device from her pocket and hacked the door to the cell in a heartbeat. As soon as the door opened, Charlie threw himself out of the cell. He mustn't have been in there for long. His red hair was a bit messier than usual and his glasses were a bit skewed. He had a purple bruise on his cheek, but other than that, he seemed pretty fine.

"Oh great," Amélie said, "Another one."

Charlie's gray eyes grew wide when he saw the tall sniper with his friends.

"Widowmaker!" he declared fearfully.

"I haven't gone by that name in a long time."

"Yeah, don't worry," Neelam added, "she's on our side."

Charlie nodded curtly, though he still seemed a bit unsettled by Amélie's presence. She remembered seeing him on the picture Sombra had given her, though she had no idea who he was.

"And who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Charlie Oxton. Pleasure to meet ya'."

The accent. Right. She knew she'd heard this accent before.

"Presentations can wait," she finally said, "Let's get out of here."

She quickly walked away to the entrance door of the cell, intending to check for any passing guards, when she heard Wei call out:

"Hum... guys? How are there two Widowmakers?"

She frowned and looked back. At the end of the long corridor, a single figure stood, so still, she almost looked like a statue. However, Amélie could recognize that silhouette anywhere. From the purple bodysuit to the long indigo ponytail and the thin, spider-like legs. She deployed her helmet, and eight angry red dots were staring back at them, like the eyes of a monster in the dark.

Amélie was stunned. This was impossible. This was a ghost, a vision from the past, haunting her. It couldn't be. The cold feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach told her so. However, she wasn't the only one seeing it. The kids saw it too.

"C'est quoi ce bordel..." she let out.

The widowmaker extended her arm and something small, purple, flew out of the bracer around her arm. Amélie suddenly realized that this was all too real when a venom mine glued itself to the ground between the kids.

"Run!" she screamed.

She shifted her gun to sniper mode and fired at the thing on the other side of the hall, just as the gas bomb exploded in front of her. She was immune to it, she knew, but the teenagers weren't. Through the smoke and only thanks to her glasses, she saw the widowmaker avoid her shot as if it were nothing, and run toward them at full speed. In front of her, the kids were coughing and doubling over, their eyes tearing up. When she'd promised them they would die today, she hadn't meant it literally. In fact, in that instant, she regretted even pronouncing the words.

Amélie passed through the smoke, placing the teenagers behind her, and turned her rifle back to rapid fire mode. She fired aimlessly, hoping to at the very least touch Widowmaker. A grappling hook past her and dug itself in the wall behind her. Then, Widowmaker emerged out of the purple mist. She punched Amélie, who didn't have time to counter. She swiftly tied the rope of her grappling hook around Amélie's neck and pulled, strangling her. Amélie tried to think of something, anything to get herself out. Only panicked thoughts ran through her mind. She hadn't felt this lost and helpless since the first time Talon had captured her. She was going to die, she could feel it.

Suddenly, the rope around her neck slackened. She pulled herself up, taking the rope away from her neck and breathing in deeply. Behind her, the Widowmaker was still standing, a dagger dug deep in her neck. Neelam was standing beside her, strange purple blood on her hands.

"Come on, we have to go!"

Amélie nodded. She picked up her rifle, hit the Widowmaker in the temple with the cross of her weapon and ran.

* * *

Somehow, the four of them made it out of the compound. It seemed as soon as they'd gone in the facility had been abandoned. A probable trap to catch her and the kids, she assumed. They all jumped in the car the teenagers had stolen and drove off. She had no remorse abandoning her motorbike. It was a rental.  
They silently drove back to their hideout. Amélie focused on the road and tried to push this widowmaker out of her thoughts. What was she? She hadn't imagined it, really was her. Same cold purple face as before, same dead eyes. It was a widowmaker she hadn't see in the mirror for almost twenty years. But somehow, she was back. Somehow, Talon had made another one.

Beside her, Neelam was trying to clean the purple blood off her hands. Once she was satisfied, she'd stopped rubbing them on her jeans, and instead started to jitter, her knee jerking rhythmically at a rapid pace. It may have bothered Amélie some time ago, but right now she couldn't care less. Behind them, Wei was staring out the window, absorbed in the city outside. Charlie was sending nervous glances her way. He didn't trust her, that much was obvious.

They stopped a short way from the storage rooms and abandoned the car on the parking lot of a mall. They walked the rest of the way silently, Charlie shivering every few seconds in his dirty, torn up clothes. No one spoke until they were inside the secret hideout, all the way down the elevator. The smell of pizza now filled the air, the boxes still stacked on the table. Neelam went to wash her hands in the kitchen sink. Wei sat down in the couch silently. Charlie looked around hesitantly, still shivering.

"It's a nice place you got there."

"My mom's hideout. Give me a sec', I'll find you better clothes."

"Oh, thanks. Is that pizza? Can I have some? I'm starving."

"Knock yourself out," Amélie replied.

She walked to one of the computers and started skimming through all the files Sombra had collected. Somewhere, somehow, there had to be an answer to this mess. This widowmaker lookalike.

Behind her, Charlie had sat down on the couch and started munching on a slice of pizza. He handed the box at Wei, but he shook his head. Neelam spent a good five minutes scrubbing her hands with soap, and finally, she groaned and rinsed them. Once they were dried, she walked to one of the boxes beside the cot and opened it. She pulled out a shirt and a pair of pants. The good news was Charlie was pretty small and thin, so her clothes would fit him easily. She handed them to him.

"Here. Bathroom's over there," she added, pointing to the only door in the hideout.

"Thanks."

He finished his slice quickly and hurried in the bathroom. Neelam picked up a slice of pizza for herself and finally went to look at what Amélie was doing. She leaned against the desk and said:

"There's no info on her. If there was I would know."

"You may have missed something."

"I didn't. I know these files by heart. If my mom had found something about some Widowmaker clone, she would have told me, heck, I'm pretty sure she would have told you."

Amélie looked in a few more folders and documents before she finally gave up. She crossed her arms and turned the chair to face Neelam.

"We can't stay here. They'll start to suspect something."

"I'll try to contact Alya and Amanda, see if we can regroup."

Neelam was about to walk away when Amélie called her back:

"Neelam?"

"Hum..."

"Stop washing your hands. It's just a feeling, I know, but washing your hands won't make it go away."

Neelam smirked.

"I wish this whole thing was just a metaphor but..."

She held out her hand. Her usual olive skin was stained with deep purple smudges.

"That's a pretty toxic blood, alright."

* * *

A/N: Hi guys! So what do you think? I know the evil clone sounds a bit easy (and it is, I absolutely know it is) but it's such a cool visual to imagine! I'm sure every writer gets a get out of jail free card with those things, you know? We all have the right to write one evil clone in our lives without being critiziced for it! Now it's my turn. Anyway, as usual, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you on Monday for the next chapter!


	5. Hawk and Dragon

**Chapter 4**  
Hawk and Dragon

A few minutes later, Charlie emerged wearing a fresh pair of pants and a blue shirt with a dancing bear on it. He cleaned the lenses of his glasses with the bottom of the shirt, then put them back on his nose and swept his messy red hair away from his face. Amélie watched him pass her and sit back on the couch. Somehow, he looked nothing like the annoyance, but a lot like her girlfriend. Same hair color, same freckles, same gray eyes. He took another slice of pizza and their eyes met. He averted his gaze quickly. She turned back to the computer, even if it was completely useless.

Neelam turned her phone off once again. No answer from either Alya or Amanda. She went to sit on the coffee table, besides the pizza boxes, and she took another slice out. She looked at Wei. He still hadn't said anything since they'd left the compound. She then turned to Charlie.

"I thought you were with Alya and Amanda."

"I was, but then we got separated an' Talon found me. Well, you know, I found them an' they captured me."

"So you don't know where they are?"

Charlie's eyes flickered between her and Amélie, who was very purposefully listening to their conversation from the desk chair.

"Char, you have to tell us if you know where they are. We need to unite, we won't be able to do it alone."

"Wha' about her?" he asked, his eyes falling on Amélie once again. "I don't trust her."

"She helped us. She saved you. She saved all of us."

"Could be a trick."

"I don't do tricks," Amélie suddenly declared, standing up from her chair to walk up to them. "If I wanted you dead, you would already be dead."

"Then how come you're not dead? Me mom told me you died."

"I don't fancy telling my story to little annoyances like you."

Charlie couldn't stand her glare more than a second. He looked back at Neelam.

"I don't trust her."

"Well, I do. None of us would be here without her. That pizza wouldn't be here without her. She's here to protect us."

Charlie glanced at the pizza, and for a second Amélie was sure he was going to spit it out. Instead, he swallowed and glanced at her one more time.

"You don' work for Talon?"

"Not anymore. If you must know, I am an independent entrepreneur now."

"What's your business?"

"Death."

He looked away quickly.

"Charlie, we don't have all day. Where are they?"

"I don't know where they are, but I know where they could be. See, we los' each other a while back, bu' I know a few places where they could be. Bu' if they ain't in these places than I don't know where they are."

Amélie tore off a piece of the pizza box and pulled out a pen. She handed both to Charlie.

"Addresses, now."

He dropped his pizza back in the box and obliged quickly.

* * *

Amélie allowed them until the first rays of the sun to rest. Charlie took the cot and fell asleep almost instantly. Wei sat on the couch, not willing to sleep, but eventually, when all the adrenaline had left his body, he was so tired that he fell, too, half lying and half sitting. Neelam couldn't sleep. She went through every location Charlie had given them, looking at camera footage and even satellite images. Once she'd narrowed down the list, she moved on to doing research on the widowmaker. However, cracking Talon servers wasn't as easy as her mother had always made it seem.

On the other computer, Amélie had been doing some research as well, tapping into some old contacts. While she found plenty on the disappearance of the former Overwatch members, she found nothing on this new Widowmaker, no poor soul they could have captured and roped into this, no sign of illegally founded research. All the usual signs gave nothing. Eventually, she stood up from her chair and stretched. She watched Neelam as she typed in frantically something on the keyboard. She walked over to her.

"You should get some sleep."

"I can't. I'm insomniac."

Amélie hadn't spent many nights in the company of Sombra, but she did remember nightly missions where everyone else was yawning and begging for sleep, while Sombra was on her computer, doing research and working her next move. The younger woman may have told her at one point that she was insomniac. That she used all her sleepless nights to be productive.

"Like your mother."

"Like both my mothers. I got their good looks, their brains, and their insomniac tendencies."

Amélie crossed her arms.

"Still, you should try to get some sleep. We have to be quick tomorrow."

"We'll find them alright. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's finding people."

Amélie was about to walk away. When the idea popped into her head, she told herself that she should remain silent and walk away. She bit her lower lip. Eventually, she added:

"You know, the chances of finding your parents are very low. Finding them alive is almost impossible."

Neelam shook her head.

"I won't stop looking. Not until they're either free or I see their dead bodies at my feet."

* * *

The next morning Neelam suggested they steal another car. Amélie ranted one. They took their breakfast in a Kofi Aromo. Two coffees, one tea, one hot chocolate. A yogurt, a slice of raspberry cake, and a cookie. They stayed just long enough for Charlie to finish his hot chocolate, and then they went on their way to the first location Neelam had scooted ahead.

The first location was an empty warehouse on the harbor, which used to belong to the Shimada empire. A bit too obvious for Amélie's taste, and probably for their targets as well. They found nothing but empty crates and rusted doors. They searched the place for hidden switches, pressed every button they could find, but there was nothing. After almost half an hour of searching, Amélie called it quit, and they moved on to the second location.

The second location was at the back of a shady tattoo shop. Neelam volunteered to go talk to the man at the counter, while Amélie scanned the inside of the place from a nearby rooftop. It took some time to get the man to trust her. Obviously, the girls had gone through there, as he knew something was up as soon as someone came snooping around. Thankfully, Neelam had had an excellent teacher when it came to interrogation techniques. She convinced the man she didn't want to kill them, that she was their childhood friend. Fortunately, when Charlie finally walked in, saying they should probably move on, the man behind the counter recognized him. Apparently, the girls had left his picture, in case he came around. He gave them another address, and they followed along.

The address led them to an apartment complex downtown, an expensive looking one at that. Almost top floor, with an elevator dropping into a personal hallway. The door was locked, but it wasn't anything either Neelam or Amélie could open. The inside was well decorated, with a big window covering a single wall. The kitchen was small but well furnished. There was no TV in the living room, just a big empty library ready to be filled with books. Both the bedrooms were empty, with just a mattress on the floor in one of them. The bathroom's drawers were also empty.

At first, Neelam and Charlie assumed they'd never made it there, but then Amélie noticed a discarded sock lost under the bedroom's heater. Someone had been there, they were just very good at making it seem like they haven't. With no sign of where they could have gone, they decided on another location Neelam had scouted ahead.

They drove across town to a closed down bar. The front windows were covered with wooden planks, and big heavy chains covered the front door. The back door, however, was open and unprotected. The four of them slid inside. There wasn't much left there. All the tables and chairs were piled up in a corner and covered in dust and cobwebs. The shelves behind the bar were empty. The door to the bathroom was sealed by a padlock. Everything had been untouched for what felt like an eternity. However, Amélie was quick to point out one detail. A small portion of the wall behind the counter, right under the shelves, wasn't of the exact same color as the rest. It had been cleaned recently, as the patterned of brushed dust on it showed. All they had to do was push it.

The trap door opened silently, leaving a small passage into a dark, damp hallway. Amélie looked back at the teenagers.

"I'll go first. Last one in do not forget to close off the trap."

Neelam rolled her eyes as if the order wasn't even necessary. Charlie, however, replied:

"Do we have to?"

She didn't even bother to answer. She stepped inside.

* * *

She crawled to a metal ladder, which led further down. She put her glasses on. She couldn't detect anything underneath. She slid down the ladder and landed on wet concrete. She was in the sewers, on the edge of a canal.

"Come down here," she declared as she put her glasses away.

One after the other, Charlie, Wei and Neelam joined her down. As soon as Neelam jumped down the ladder, Amélie asked:

"Did you close the hatch?"

"No, I left it wide open for the world to see. Of course, I closed the damn hatch!"

Amélie ignored her. She looked around. This place was a real labyrinth, with passageways going everywhere left and right, and breaking into even more branches, and arches going over the canals. They could explore the entire place for weeks and still find no sign of their targets.

"Hey guys, look."

Charlie pointed to a small graffiti on the wall. It was a tiny Asian dragon, drawn in black charcoal.

"I think it's this way," he added.

Together, they followed the dragon symbols through the maze of sewer tunnels. It seemed to go on forever, leading them over canals and through metal gates and into more tunnels. Finally, the dragon led them down a thin tunnel, only big enough to fit one person at a time. As usual, Amélie walked in first. Her path was only lit by small neons attached to the ceiling, most of which had shut off a long time ago.

She stepped out of the tunnel, and the air vibrated beside her. A dagger planted itself in the wall right beside her head. She smirked.

"You Shimadas are all the same. All show and no accuracy."

The girl who'd been seating on a crate right in front of the exit of the tunnel stood up. She was a lot smaller than Amélie, maybe even smaller than Charlie. Her black hair was tied in a bun. Her slanted dark eyes surveilled Amélie's every move with suspicion. She took another dagger from her leather belt.

"If I wanted you dead, spider, you'd already be dead."

"How many times have your father said that to me? Yet here I am. Where is he?"

The girl's grip on the dagger strengthen.

"That's what I was hoping you could tell us."

"I wouldn't be here if I knew, believe me."

They heard fearful squeaks coming from behind her. She stepped aside, and finally, Charlie pulled himself out of the tunnel.

"Oh, there's an exit! I thought I was going to get stuck!"

Amanda lowered her dagger when she saw Charlie, followed by Wei and Neelam getting out of the tunnel. Neelam jumped out and turned to her friend.

"Don't kill her, please."

"Wasn't planning on it. Yet."

Amélie rolled her eyes at the empty threat. The lights were turned on for good. There was only one large room there, occupied by an old damp looking mattress and some takeout boxes. Another girl was standing by the light switch, taller than everyone except Wei. The carbon copy of Pharah, with longer hair and blue eyes.

Amanda came to pick up the dagger embedded in the wall and placed it back at her belt. Amélie noticed the revolver in its holster hanging by her side. She had seen that gun before, on the other side of the battlefield.

"Charlie, are you okay?" Alya asked as she moved away from the light switch and came to stand beside him.

"Yeah, just peachy. Was thrown in a Talon prison cell. Was saved by a widowmaker and almost killed by another one. Had pizza for dinner. Never been better."

Alya and Amanda frowned.

"What's this about two Widowmakers?"

"It's a long story," Neelam conceited. "What's important right now is, we need to work together to find our parents."

"Agreed," Alya declared.

She turned to Amélie and crossed her arms. She was a bit taller than her and looked down at her as she was just another spider she could squash. Amélie glared up at her.

"Can we trust you?"

"Do you think I would be here babysitting children playing at war if you couldn't?"

Alya seized her up and down again, then nodded.

"Fair enough."

She stepped away from Amélie to talk to everyone else.

"You guys are lucky. You arrived just in time. We were waiting just for extraction."

"Extraction? From who?"

"The Mechanic."

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! Gang's almost back together! Who's this Mechanic? You'll have to wait until Thursday to find out (or look at the story's character list...)


	6. The Mechanic

**Chapter 5**  
The Mechanic

They waited in the sewers another half hour until Alya's phone rang. Then they finally left their hiding spot, and Alya and Amanda led them through the sewers and to another exit. They all climbed out of there, and found themselves in a small alleyway, with two large vans parked there, blocking the way to the street. Amélie was hesitant at first, and even more so when the back of the first van opened and two omnics in dirty overalls walked out.

"The Mechanic sends her regards," one of them said.

"Let's hope we get to thank her in person," Alya replied.

They all stacked up in the first van, and Amélie held her thoughts on the subject. It would have made more sense to split up, especially if they got attacked along the way. Better for half of them to make it out then none of them. However, from her position, she could observe the driver's place. Both vans were driven by omnics, and they had direct communication with each other, as well as a screen showing them live the camera feeds around them. They drove off in the same direction, then separated, then met again. From time to time the omnics on the passenger seat would press a button, and she would hear a light sound as if something was being turned on and off. They drove out of the city on the highway, and into the countryside.

"Hope you're comfortable," Alya said, "we have another four hours of drive."

Charlie groaned.

"No bathroom stops, I suppose?"

No one bothered to answer.

* * *

Almost everyone fell asleep at one point during the trip, except Amélie and their drivers. Wei slept upright, his arms crossed and his head leaning against the car's chassis. Neelam leaned against the door, her mouth hanging slightly open. Amanda fell asleep on Alya, leaning fully against her, her head resting on her shoulder. Alya, in turn, rested her head on Amanda's when she fell asleep as well. Charlie fell forward as soon as his eyes closed, which woke him up in a panic.  
Eventually, when the sun was still high in the sky, they pulled out of the highway and into a small town in the middle of nowhere. They rolled through the town then off of the concrete road, and over a dirt one. The floating wheels were replaced by good old rolling ones. The road was uneven and full of holes, making everyone at the back tremble and jump off the bench. It woke the last few still asleep.

Up the road, they arrived at an old ranch, with a big barn beside a small rustic house. Massive metal pieces, as if taken from giant robots, laid abandoned in the garden. A few omnics were moving here and there, cleaning up the mess of metal parts or fixing one thing or another. The car stopped at the end of the road, and the drivers jumped down. The back door of the van was opened, and they all moved out. Amélie stretched and looked around. It almost looked like a small corner of paradise, if your definition of paradise was far away from everything with massive pieces of robots occupying most of the space and omnics walking around like they owned the place. At least the forest nearby looked nice.

"The Mechanic is waiting for you inside the barn," one of the omnic informed them.

"Thank you," Alya replied.

They all walked as a single group to the barn. The thundering sound of metal hitting metal echoed regularly from there. Through one of the small, dirty windows, they could see sparks flying off. The door to the barn was half-open. Alya pulled it entirely, and they stepped inside.

Whatever had been stocked there was no longer present. It had completely been turned into a workshop, full of metal tables and tools and spare parts. All around the place, however, plastic hamster tubes had been placed, creating an easy and quick pathway for its owner, without having to run among the big dangerous machines which occupied the middle of the workshop. In a corner, an old Meka had its top wide open, the old pink paint barely visible under all the dirt and oil stains.

"Here you go," they heard the voice of a woman from the other side of the workshop. "It should work just as new."

"Thank you, miss Brigitte," an omnic replied.

He stood up from the chair, still moving his new hand and fingers in appreciation. He passed by the group as if they didn't really matter and went back to work. Brigitte swept her long dark red hair away and looked up at the group.

"I didn't expect so many of you here. But, I'm glad you all made it in one piece."

* * *

They all stood around one of the workshop tables. Amélie looked at Brigitte up and down again. The woman hadn't changed much since the last time she'd seen her. Still tall and muscular, still with long dark red hair and a lot of freckles. Now, she had few more scars here and there and wrinkles at the corner of her eyes too. She was wearing old overalls stained with dark oil spots. She also glanced at Amélie from time to time, wearily. She didn't trust her either.

"I've been working on a few things," Brigitte started, "as I told you before. We've been pretty busy with the Meka, but if some of you know their way around a workshop..."

"You want to arm them?" Amélie cut her off.

They all turned to her.

"You would have them fighting unarmed?"

"No. I wouldn't have them fighting at all. They're not ready."

All five teenagers present took great offense in this.

"We're ready," Alya replied. "Our parents prepared us for this."

"It took me half a day to track you down. I have seen these three in a combat situation. You are not ready. You are playing a dangerous game, but you are not ready for war."

"Then what do you want us to do? Give up on our parents?" Charlie asked.

"Yes. Walk away before it's too late."

Neelam pursed her lips, then said:

"I get that my mom hired you to protect us, but we don't need your protection here. So either you help us save them, like really help us, or you can leave."

Amélie gritted her teeth.

"You ungrateful... Fine. If you don't need me anymore, I'll leave. But don't call me crying when all your friends are dead."

Amélie stormed out of the barn, everyone else's gaze on her. She shut the door behind her violently, and it bounced off the frame and reopened. She stomped angrily until she was a few steps away from the barn. All the omnics around were staring at her and she glared at them. She hadn't killed an omnic in quite some time, but she could make an exception if they continued to stare at her.

She crossed her arms and let out long, drawn-out breaths. This is why she hated kids. They always did whatever they wanted and never listened. There would be consequences. One of them would die, more than one. Her bet was on Charlie. It would destroy them. That was something she couldn't protect them from. And there was still the matter of this Widowmaker clone. Odds are, wherever they were planning on attacking, they would find her there, or better yet, another clone, a fresher one which hadn't been wounded yet.

She stayed there, thinking and brooding, for quite some time. When the door of the barn opened once again, the crick of the rusted hinges and the large wooden door wincing took her out of her thoughts. She turned around. Neelam came to stand beside her, arms crossed.

"I thought you said you were leaving."

"You will die out there. Maybe not you, you could be crafty enough to survive, but the others..."

Neelam shrugged.

"That's because you've never seen Amanda fight. And Alya's a reserve officer. Even Charlie doesn't seem like it but he's a black belt in judo. As we said, we've been prepared for this sort of things."

"There is a difference between being prepared, and facing the real danger. I know it, your parents know it. You should know it too."

"We do. But if we don't do this, who will? It's a rhetorical question, by the way, because if you tell me that you're going to storm Talon's main base of operation on your own, I'll tell you the same thing you told me. You will die out there."

"My death will mean nothing compared to yours. Though it will hurt my pride greatly, to die for a bunch of children."

Neelam smirked.

"That's the spirit. So, do we have an agreement? We work together, you help us, we make sure you have seven human shields before a single bullet touches you. We get our parents back, maybe get rid of that clone thing while we're at it."

"Do I even have a choice?"

"You do. But my side is better."

Just as Amélie was about to agree, a teenager came walking their way, carrying two heavy pieces of machinery. She was shorter and younger than Neelam, probably fifteen. Dark skinned, with thick black hair in a barely-holding braid. She had brown, slanted eyes and a face Amélie had seen too often for her liking. There was a big hamster standing on her shoulder, with a white and orange fur.

"Hey, Neelam! Didn't know you were around!"

"Hey Duri. What are you doing here? Is Myeong with you?"

"Yeah, he's in the forest with Bastion. He's playing around, as usual. Ham and I are doing the real work around here."

The hamster seemed to agree.

"Tell Brigitte we'll be there in a minute."

Duri nodded and continued on her way. Neelam waited until the teenager was inside the barn to turn back to Amélie.

"So, deal?"

Amélie sighed.

"We are all going to die."

* * *

Everyone was already hard at work, fixing and building and preparing their attack on the Talon base when something heavy suddenly fell on the roof. It made dust rain on the people inside but also alarmed them. Everyone picked up the nearest weapon available, whether it be a gun, a hammer or, in Charlie's case, a pencil. They heard moving above them, and they held in their breath. Both Amélie and Alya moved toward the door, ready to shoot whoever came through. Then they heard heavy metal steps coming around the barn. It was accompanied by small and very happy-sounding beeping sounds.

Finally, the thing on the roof jumped off and landed on the other side of the door. They heard more beeping sounds, and the cracking voice of a teenager reply:

"I know right? Can you imagine with the armor on?"

A happy beep replied.

The door to the barn was pushed open, and everyone relaxed when a teenager walked in. He looked at them strangely when he noticed they were all armed.

"Hey, guys! Everything okay?"

All the kids groaned and dropped their weapons. Amélie took a bit more time to react. This must have been Duri's brother. Twin brother, by the looks of it. A skin a bit darker than hers, dark hair in a mess of dreads pulled in a bun, a bit taller, but same brown slanted eyes. He seemed to be desperately trying to grow a beard, but the few hazard hairs on his chin didn't resemble anything.

"We're back... Is this a bad time?"

Brigitte shook her head.

"No, it's okay, Myeong. I need feedback if we want to make it work quickly."

Amélie was about to ask why she needed feedback when she noticed his outfit. The teenager was wearing a dark green bodysuit, with a metal backpack clipped to his shoulders. From the backpack, metal cables ran down his arms and all the way to his wrists, to bracers which must have been launching the grappling hooks. On his shoes were metal clamps, which tinted on the concrete ground when he walked forward. As he passed her Amélie noticed a twig stuck in his hair. Apparently, Brigitte had been building suits in preparation for some time already.

"It was almost perfect. Left side got stuck at one point, but I found a way to unblock it."

"It's not supposed to block, that's the problem. Take it off and I'll take a look."

Myeong started taking the harness off. Amélie heard beeping beside her. Bastion had walked in, a sleeping hedgehog in his open hand. He walked around Amélie and toward a corner of the barn, which she assumed was his. It was full of withering flowers he must have picked up. On the beam above it were three different bird nests, and a few more on the ground. Bastion left the hedgehog there, on a bed of floors, beside two frogs and a box with a bird wearing a splint on its wing. Amélie sighed. How she had ended up there was still a great mystery to her.

* * *

A/N: Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next week will be the last week for this story, we only have 2 chapters and an epilogue left to go, so if you absolutely want more let me know!


	7. Time to Suit Up

**Chapter 6**  
Time to Suit Up

The following few days were a great challenge for Amélie. With no particular engineering or mechanical skills, she kept watch or accompanied the kids as they tested their new outfits. She also took great care in observing them, and their relationships.

Alya and Amanda were the more obvious and, to her surprise, only romantic relationship of the group. She'd had her suspicion when she'd seen them in the car, but she quickly realized, even when they tried to be discreet, they failed horribly.

Amanda didn't have much to do with her time. Her father's revolver was still in perfect condition, and beside armor fitting, there wasn't much for her to do. She helped wherever she could, however, handing tools when necessary. She hovered near Alya, serving as her assistant as often as possible. In turn, Alya hovered near Amanda every time they were apart more than a minute, but Alya's hovering was different. It was a lot more protective. Alya would always come around with a stool, or a bottle of water, any way she could make herself useful and receive a kiss on the cheek for it. Amélie had already seen that sort of behavior, had experienced it first hand, and it made her heart clench every time she saw them interacting.

The twins were another interesting duo to watch interact, not only together but with the others. Much like any siblings, they bickered and argued all the time, especially when it came to fixing their mother's old meka tank. It became rather obvious, too, that Duri strangely worshiped Neelam. She would follow her around like a puppy, get her approbation on everything she did and said, give her suggestion which Neelam never listened to. Neelam reveled in it. Amélie assumed she was all too aware of it, and rather than discouraging the younger teenager, she'd just decided to roll with it. Plus, Neelam would very often use Duri's support to block Alya in everything she wanted to do or propose.

There was bad blood between them, Amélie noticed quickly. Neelam and Alya very rarely agreed on anything. Neelam, much like her mother, was the embodiment of chaos. Recklessly going in and destroying everything was the only thing she ever suggested, which surprised Amélie greatly. It prompted her to believe she did it on purpose, just to oppose Alya on principal. Because Alya was order, she was the group de facto leader, she was the oldest and the responsible one. Neelam was just playing a role of balance in the group because too much order without chaos was never a good thing. Especially according to Neelam's other mother.

Though Wei kept to himself most of the time, working alone or with the help of one of the omnics assisting them, there was an undeniable bond between the three boys of the group. They experimented their new toys together, especially Charlie and Myeong. They would hang out in the same corner, whispering things to each other. Whenever the girls saw them lazying out instead of working they would just roll their eyes and call them back to work.

But of course, spending so much time around teenagers meant that the thing they usually talked about was heart problems. Well, most of them. Amanda and Alya were usually the listeners of such stories, giving advice and the such. Neelam didn't talk about this sort of things, and when she did it was with an indifferent shrug. She didn't have any story to tell, any advice to give or receive. No one in her line of sight, so to speak. Wei listened to Charlie's problems, mostly, with little to no advice to give of his own. Of course, Amélie could read between the line. There was someone in Wei's heart, someone he couldn't talk about. She'd heard him talk to the other omnics about his omnic friend and lab assistant Albert enough to know the truth.

Charlie had a crush on a bad girl. A girl who would ruin him, from what she'd gathered. You don't always choose who your heart settle on, she supposed. Charlie had listened to everyone's advice, everyone who cared to give him one, but still, this girl was haunting him. Myeong also had his lot of girl problems, a girl who didn't seem to notice him. An older girl at his high school, who was tutoring him in maths – good to hear the guy they had trusted with grappling hooks was bad in maths. Duri also had her own lot of girl problems and boy problems. Duri's real problem was that she assumed she was developing a crush on every person who talked to her when she didn't even know what a crush was.

All these romantic plotting was the only reason Amélie hadn't left. Because no matter how you put it, she was a sucker for romance stories, even if they were as uninteresting as high school dramas.

* * *

Brigitte approached her at one point. They'd been working tirelessly for three days, and everything was coming together smoothly. Amélie was seating on her usual chair, right at the entrance of the barn. It was the only enjoyably cold place in the entire building because even if the air was rather warm outside, it was nothing compared to the furnace that was inside. She would sit there almost all day, enjoying every breath of fresh air which came through the ajar door, and observing the teenagers work.

"We should be ready by tomorrow," the mechanic declared.

"I still believe they are not ready."

"We are never ready when the fighting starts. But, they are as ready as can be."

"I suppose you will be coming with us?"

"One more shield is still not enough."

"On that, we can both agree on."

Silence settled between the two of them. The barn was as noisy as ever, filled with the sound of sparks flying from a soldering gun, and the chatter of excited and nervous teenagers.

"I could fix your gun," Brigitte suggested. "Or make you a better pair of glasses."

Amélie shook her head.

"I don't need either."

"You won't let me make you an armor either?"

Amélie smirked.

"Focus on what matters first. I've survived without your armors so far. They'll need them more than me."

* * *

Everyone was ready, and a time and date of departure for Talon's main base had been settled. The next morning, as the sun would rise, they would all climb into the Orca and fly off to battle. Amélie couldn't sleep. It had nothing to do with the fact that she occupied a couch in a room full of snoring teenagers who slept on the floor. She felt strange. She'd never been afraid before a mission before, but this was definitely fear sipping into her entire body and making her hands shake. Shaky hands made for a shaky aim. This was the quickest her heart could beat.

It took some thinking on her part to realize that she really wasn't scared for her. She was scared for them. For these seven teenagers – teenagers, the oldest was twenty-one – who were about to face death. And that Widowmaker clone. She couldn't keep her out of her mind. She would have to kill her, she knew, but a clone was nothing. If Talon had made one, they could make twenty. She would have to find the lab where they made them. It had to be in the main base of operation. She would find it, and she would destroy it completely.

Someone moved to her right and walked over everyone else, and out of the house. Amélie stayed perfectly still, her eyes closed. She waited until the door to the house had closed off, and she sat up. A quick glance at the sleeping bags told her exactly who had gone out. She stood up and followed her out.

She found Neelam sitting on a big log beside the dirt road, at the edge of the propriety. Something blue flashed in her hand, then disappeared, then reappeared again. Upon approaching, Amélie realized she was making geometrical shapes out of hard-light, then destroying them, and rebuilding a new one. She'd never bothered to ask her how she was able to do it, to create seemingly out of thin air things like her mother never could, but Amélie assumed there was a reason hard-light technology was still experimental.

She silently came to sit beside Neelam, who smirked.

"Couldn't sleep either? I suppose my usual insomnia wasn't helped by pre-battle jitters."

She crashed a cube and created an almost perfect sphere.

"I was just thinking, if we did all this for nothing, it will be a big waste of resource."  
She destroyed the sphere and created a star.

"Also I really don't feel like starting Overwatch again. I know Alya would jump at the chance but I'm just not really okay with it."

She exploded the star and created a Rubik cube. She took it in her hands and started scrambling the sides.

"I just want my old life back. Is it too much to ask? You're probably the last person to answer that question. Don't answer that."

Once she was satisfied with how scrambled the sides were, she started completing the game.

"Maybe you were right. Maybe we're not ready and we are all going to die tomorrow. And honestly, I don't want to die. I have so much I still want to do. I may not have someone to live for, like the others, and if I died and my moms were dead no one would miss me, but there is still stuff I want to do!"

She completed the cube and threw it down the road with all her strength. It shattered into a thousand tiny light pieces.

"Now is not the time to doubt yourself," Amélie finally said. "And whatever happens tomorrow, I will make sure you all make it out alive. All seven of you."

Neelam pursed her lips and stood up.

"We both know it's not a promise you can keep."

* * *

Amélie was the first ready to go. She'd pulled out her usual outfit, dirty black pants and tee-shirt, with a protective chest plate and her leather jacket. Her gloves felt a bit harder to fit than usual. Her gun a bit heavier. With her glasses on her head, she waited for everyone else. Bastion and Hammond were the next to arrive, the two of them taking little to no preparation.

The Orca had already landed in a field further into the ranch, and Amélie was losing her mind waiting. Any second the Orca – Overwatch's most recognizable plane, with the organization logo on every imaginable surface – was staying in an open field was a second of opportunity they lost. She paced in front of the plane's open hatch, desperately waiting for the others. She was almost tempted to leave without them. Suddenly, she heard Bastion happily beep, and Hammond's bot said:

"Finally!"

Amélie turned to the edge of the field, where Brigitte was accompanying the group of seven teenagers. If anything, Amélie conceited, they looked epic.

Alya was at the front. She wore a lighter version of her mother's Raptora suit, with fewer armor parts. There were still protections on all her joins and her chest, but the rest was a thick dark blue bodysuit. She had a smaller jetpack on her back as well, one that didn't allow her to fly, but push herself up if necessary. She had her helmet under one arm, and an automatic rifle under the other.

Amanda was on her right. She wore a chestplate under a red leather jacket with a golden dragon on her back. Two belts crossed around her waist. One carried Peacekeeper and ammo, the other a collection of daggers. A golden ribbon kept her hair tied in a ponytail.

Charlie was on Alya's left. He'd forgone orange for light blue, to Amélie's relief. Two big gantlets covered his hands, connected to the pack on his back by long tubes hanging from his elbows. The generator on his chest was turning at full force, producing electricity stocked on his back. Blue goggles covered his eyes, with indications on the state of his gauntlets and generator.

Myeong walked beside him. His grappling system was fully operational, protected by green armor pieces. He had heavy protections on his arms and legs and his chest. His hair was still in a tangled mess of dreads, which had prevented him from getting a helmet, but a pair of goggled rested on his forehead, ready to protect his eyes.

Duri was in her mother's hold Meka, right behind them. The old battle mech had been painstakingly put back together with everything they could find. One of its arms had been replaced by a different kind of gun, probably taken from an old OR model. It had been painted in camouflage green quickly, covering most of the sponsors' stickers still on it. Duri had replaced them with big llama stickers. She was wearing a pink bodysuit which didn't look as comfortable as the one D. va used to wear.

On Amanda's right side, Wei was still making small adjustments to his gun. He was the only one not wearing any sort of body armor. He had two long straps falling on his shoulders, covered with small metal cartridges, all identical in shape and size. All the ones on the right were marked with a little flame and all the ones on the left with a little snowflake.

Finally, Neelam walked at everyone's right. She wore a sleeveless jacket with shoulder-pads, and her entire left arm was encapsulated in a metal protection, covered with purple-glowing wires which disappeared inside her jacket. She wore a fingerless glove on her other hand, the center of which glowed purple. Her semi-automatic was hanging around her waist, along with two small blue and white balls which almost looked like grenades.

Upon seeing them arrive, Amélie smirked and crossed her arms. If they were going to die today, at least they were doing it in style.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and so I'll be posting chapter 7 + epilogue on Thursday. See you guys then!


	8. Overwatch 30

**Chapter 7**  
Overwatch 3.0

The Orca flew for quite some time, enough for every single person on the plane to second guess themselves, but not long enough for any one of them to speak up about how this was a terrible plan. The base was hidden in the middle of a Canadian forest, and big rectangular fortress the likes of which Amélie had never seen before. Probably the last of Talon's bastion, before its second fall.

"You're sure it's here?" Alya asked as she came to stand on the edge of the ramp, looking down.

Amélie walked up beside her and pulled down her glasses. She scanned the area. There were a lot of soldiers, every sort of troops too, just like in the old days. But, there was also an entire section filled with people, either seating, sleeping or pacing, all placed at the relative same distance from the others. She counted them quickly. Twenty. Bingo.

"If they're not here, then it's the biggest, most obvious trap Talon has ever laid."

She pulled her glasses back up.

"Let's do this," Alya agreed.

The Orca lowered itself, and as it entered the security perimeter, more and more people started shooting at it from the ground. Much like Brigitte's informant had found, there was no real aerial security, probably because they couldn't afford it. Talon had gone cheap.

Their bullets did nothing but scratches on the Orca's strong chassis. Once they were low enough, the first wave of people jumped down. Hammond went first, followed by Duri, with her twin holding onto the back of the Meka. Alya followed a few seconds later, giving one last kiss to Amanda before putting her helmet on and jumping off. Amélie waited for another few seconds, just to make sure the Orca was low enough before the grappled onto the nearest tower. The two men there weren't expecting to be pushed off the guard toward by a pair of heels. She took her position, lowering her glasses, and started firing.

Duri and Alya had landed in the courtyard and were fighting back to back. Wrecking Ball was pushing everyone off the ramparts or rolling over them. With his grappling hooks, Myeong was jumping from guard tower to guard tower, throwing out everyone who'd camped up there. He was her priority, as she killed anyone who'd ever come close to shooting him, either down on him or from behind. She had to keep her eyes everywhere, she quickly realized. Alya was a good fighter but very vulnerable against assassins and snipers alike. While her small propellers helped her deliver devastating blows, she had a very limited evasion range, especially after completing a jump. More than once in a very short span of time, Amélie found herself killing one of Myeong's assailant, then quickly shifting her scope to the sniper aiming at Alya, and return back to Myeong instantly after. All of that, while keeping an eye on people who would try to take her down. If that wasn't babysitting, then she didn't know what it was.

The front door burst open under Bastion's assault, as he stuttered inside, in full tank mode. He shot down a heavy assault unit who was bothering Duri, sending him back and allowing the girl to get back on her feet. Behind him, the rest of the cavalry arrived. Brigitte lowered her shield just long enough to throw her mace at the assault unit, pushing him against the wall. She drew fire quickly, and deployed her shield again, behind which Wei and Charlie hid. Amanda was hidden behind the broken-down door, shooting with Peacekeeper at any and all enemy that passed in front of her. Amélie almost regretted insulting her aim, as the girl didn't waste a single bullet.

Bastion fell back to sentry mode and unloaded an entire round on the heavy until there were so many holes in his armor anyone could see right through it. A sniper started shooting at him, but Amélie took care of it quickly. Now that their full force was in place, she didn't have to babysit the kids as much as before. She took more time to aim, her accuracy becoming once again deadly rather than hurriedly good.

Wei was using his flame-thrower to keep troopers at bay, and when his cartridge ran out, he ejected it and placed another one in, which let out a cold liquid. It fell on the Talon soldiers, who froze instantly.

She watched as Charlie made his way to the center of the fight, tazing people with a single punch, sending sparks everywhere. The sound of crackling thunder followed him, louder than any gunshot. And maybe, she'd spoken too soon about him, as he could hold his own without a complaint.

Amanda rolled from behind the door and took cover behind a pillar in the courtyard. She reloaded her gun, took a dagger out and threw it straight into the throat of the assassin zooming her way. Alya uppercut an enforcer, raising a foot from the ground and knocking him down. Wei let his fire spread uncontrollably to a corridor, blocking the exit for many troopers who had to backtrack. Myeong grappled the shoulder of a trooper and sent him flying down the rampart. Duri jet-packed right into a heavy, sending them both through a wall. Amélie felt a pang of pride. They were ready.

"How are things going on up here?" Neelam asked in her earpiece.

"Fine."

"That's very descriptive. Thank you. You know, when all of this is over, you should write a book, I think you'll be very good at it."

Amélie rolled her eyes and shot another enforcer.

"Focus on the mission, Sombra," she said before even realizing it.

Neelam chuckled in her ear-piece.

"Isn't it cute? Reminiscing about the old time? Bet you never had so many good operatives on a mission with you."

"Good is not the word I would use."

"You're right. We're not good. We're awesome."

* * *

Neelam sidled against the walls, her invisible field holding thus far. It was a half-hast thing, one she'd had two days to put together because they'd had the idea of using her mother's stealth field at the last second. If it didn't overheat and break down before she got to the prison, they would be lucky.

She passed many guards, though they were in such a hurry to get to the courtyard that they didn't even notice her. She stood still then nonetheless because she was very aware of the stealth field's flaw, and there was no way she was getting caught if she could avoid it.

She passed barracks and security rooms and continued further down into the complex. There, she found a server room, which meant an opportunity. She crouched down behind a server, hidden from view, and turned the field off. She checked the small chip in her elbow, opening a little panel there to reveal thin layers of cables. The chip was warm but still functional, which she was grateful for. She let the panel open to cool it off. With her right hand, she pinched the palm of her left hand, opening the hacking interface. The holographic screen opened in front of her, and she got to work. There was a lot of information to download, and she put it in passive action with a flick of her right hand. She hacked into the camera feed and found the prison cells, three levels below. She also found the labs, where the Widowmaker clone from before was sleeping in a pod. She wondered why no one had activated her yet. Maybe she hadn't recuperated from her masterful throat stab. Probably more because not everyone could activate her, and the big boss wasn't in the house.

"Hey, Amélie, I found the labs. You interested?"

There was a pause. Meanwhile, Neelam flickered through some of the information she was downloading on the computer on her back.

"Maybe later," the sniper finally replied.

"Alright, I'm going down to the prison, see you around."

She closed the screen, checking once again that the downloading would continue. She closed the panel, turned the stealth field back on, and walked back toward the stairs.

* * *

Thankfully, everyone was already out or on their way, and the stairs were empty. Neelam hurried down three floors. She crossed another hallway and stopped right in front of the door leading to the prison. She deployed the map in front of her once again. The prison made a U shape, with a door at each end. From the camera feed, she had counted nine troopers keeping guard. It should be a piece of cake. She pushed the screen away and declared in her earpiece:

"Alright, I'm going in. If you don't hear from me in ten minutes, come as a group, don't do the stupid thing of sending one person after another to check things out. Thank you."

She stretched her shoulders, crackled her fingers than her knuckles, and finally, she kicked down the door. Under normal circumstances, the metal door wouldn't even have budged. But with shoes like these, she burst the door off its hinges. It fell on the ground, pushing the nearest trooper out of the way. With her gun in one hand and a hard-light blade in the other, she stomped into the room. She shot down the man on the right side ahead of her, then stabbed the man on her left with the dagger. A third man, a bit further down the hall, saw her enter and instantly fired her way. She placed her left arm in front of her. A shield deployed from the forearm. Bullets were absorbed, but she knew it wouldn't last. She crouched, and with her right hand, which she placed flat on the ground, she summoned a turret. The little ball appeared from the ground up. She picked it up and threw it on the ground. Much like a grenade, it rolled down then deployed. The blue laser touched the man firing at her first, taking him down. It then focused on the man who'd run toward her. It hit him in the back and pushed him to the ground. She kicked his gun away from him, then kicked him in the face, knocking him out.

"You should watch where you fall! People are walking here!"

Unfortunately, her turret was blown up by a man who rounded the corner and shot it before it could touch him. Neelam pulled her gun from her belt again and shot him down.

She heard footsteps slowing down and imagined more people must have been hiding behind the corner. She turned her stealth field back on and walked around the corner. There were indeed three troopers, regrouping around the corner and ready to ambush her. She smirked. It was almost too easy. She moved behind them and waited. The man at the front motioned for the others to round the corner with him. He counted to three with his fingers, then they all jumped from around the corner, weapons out. They seemed confused when they saw nothing but their comrades' unconscious bodies. They relaxed, and that was their mistake.

Neelam reappeared behind them, dagger in hand, and stabbed the one in the middle in the throat, then when the two other men turned toward her to fire she stepped out of the way. They shot each other, taking themselves out for her. Neelam threw the dagger away and cleaned her hand on her pants, checking to make sure no blood had broken her glove. When she found that it was fine, she pulled the screen up once again.

"Prison is secured and prisoners..."

She unlocked all the cells from her computer, and instantly all the cell doors clicked open.

"Are out."

She checked her download again. Almost seventy percent. Soon they would know all Talon's secret once again. She pulled the screen away, as the twenty members of Overwatch came grouping around her.

"Please, exit the building through this door. Up five levels, to your right, and go to the courtyard."

As she tried to indicate to everyone which way to go, a cry echoed around the prison:

"Neelam!"

In an instant, she was caught in a hug by her mother, cold dirty metal arm around her as a warmer one came to bring her closer to Satya.

"You're alright! Oh, thank the gods..."

"Mom, I'm fine, can you please let me go..."

Still, Satya continued to hug her.

"Hugs later... Once we're out of here?"

Finally, Satya agreed to let her go. Neelam took in a deep breath and cleared her throat.

"This is very humiliating."

A hand came to clap her shoulder, and she looked beside her at her other mother.

"Let's get out of here, cariño."

"Oh please, add insult to injury."

Neelam sighed and escaped her mother's grasp.

"Up the stairs, I said, come on, everyone on! This is a rescue mission, no time to waste."

One after the other, the twenty Overwatch members ran up the stairs. Neelam stayed down until she was sure everyone was out. She checked the download again. Just above ninety percent.

"Guys, everyone's on their way up. I hope you're ready for a wave of hugs. Just tell me when I can turn the teleporter on."

She turned around, about to take one last glance back at the cells before going up, when she saw a lone figure standing at the end of the hall. Unlike the previous time, she was hard to miss, all purple skin and angry amber eyes. Neelam smirked.

"I was wondering when they would turn you on."

Widowmaker remained silent. She clenched her fists, ready to fight. Neelam created a new dagger in her left hand and pulled her gun from her waist.

"Yeah, I'm the one who stabbed you last time. Want some more?"

* * *

The portal Neelam had discreetly placed around the main door to the compound opened almost as soon as Amélie had given her the go-to. Everyone armed and still in shape to fight was keeping Talon away from it as one after the other the Overwatch members, old and young, jumped through the portal. Duri had had to eject out of the Meka a while ago, and she had to be carried through the portal by her brother.

Amanda forced Alya through the portal, on her mother's shoulder, as blood ran down her temple where her helmet had been broken. Bastion rolled through, Hammond on his shoulder as the hamster had been extracted out of his mech right on time by Charlie. Amélie turned to Brigitte, who was protecting one side of the base keeping the portal open.

"Is everyone through?" she asked over the sound of gunshots.

"It's just us and... Neelam? Did she go through?"

Amélie frowned. Indeed, she hadn't seen the teenager again. If she had, she knew Neelam would have bragged about how it was too easy.

"I'll go get her. She has another teleporter on her, so don't wait for us."

Brigitte nodded. Behind them, the roar of a dragon echoed around the courtyard. Red energy swirled around Amanda, and dissipated, as six red dragons, each powering a bullet from her gun, passed through every enemy in their path. Then, Amanda jumped through the portal. Brigitte nodded once at Amélie and disappeared through as well. Amélie shot one of the two bases, and the portal dissolved into sparks of light. She ran before the Talon agents could move out of their covers.

* * *

Her heart hammered in her chest as she made it down the five flights of stairs. It had not beaten that fast in a long, long time. She could only imagine what could be holding the teenager back. Only bad things. Only once she arrived down the stairs and into the hallway leading to the holding block did she realize it was the worst kind of things.

Through the empty frame of the door, she saw Widowmaker holding Neelam by the collar of her jacket. Her metal arm was busted, blood leaking through the cracks. Amélie swore she could see a bone peeking through. Blood was flowing out of her nose and mouth. Amélie stepped closer, and Widowmaker moved quickly, pulling Neelam in front of her like a human shield. Through the painful tears and the blood running from her eyebrow, Neelam saw her, and she smiled. Her front tooth was chipped.

"Hey... Ninety-nine percent, Amélie..."

She didn't try to squirm away, probably because she didn't have the strength to anymore.

"Let her go," Amélie threatened.

The Widowmaker didn't reply. She didn't move either. Amélie pulled up her sniper rifle.

"I said, let her down!"

She tried to aim for Widowmaker's head, but every time she moved her reticle Widowmaker pulled Neelam's head in front of her as if she weighed nothing. Amélie tried to take in a deep breath, to stabilize her aim. She couldn't. She was shaking uncontrollably. She lowered her weapon and cursed herself. She couldn't do it, not anymore.

Between them, Neelam's bloody gurgled turned into a chuckle, then a cough. The computer on her back started beeping.

"One hundred percent, bitch."

Above them, an explosion shook the building. Neelam's virus had overheated the servers, wrecking them in the process and spreading destruction and chaos in its wake. In her right hand, a hard-light blade appeared. She stabbed Widowmaker's thigh with it. The clone dropped her, and Amélie acted fast. She ran up to Widowmaker and hit her with the cross of her rifle, right on the nose. Widowmaker stumbled back, purple blood dripping from her nostrils. Neelam was laying on the ground, fighting to remain conscious.

"Let's get out of here?" she suggested.

"I'll see you later."

Amélie picked up the white and blue sphere on her belt and placed it in her hand, before activating it. It beeped twice, and Neelam was teleported away before she could protest. Amélie stood up, her rifle ready, and Widowmaker clenched her fists.

"Finissons en."

Amélie shot at Widowmaker without even taking the time to aim. Widowmaker twirled around, avoiding the bullets, one barely grazed her arm, and purple liquid started to leak down her arm. Widowmaker managed to get close enough to kick the rifle out of her hands. The weapon scrambled to the ground, leaving her defenseless. She avoided another punch and jumped back. Widow shot her grappling hook at her. She side-stepped, but the hook scratched her arm, tearing through leather and flesh alike. Blood, almost red but not quite, flowed out of the wound. Widow kicked her back, and Amélie clenched her teeth. She'd had enough of this fraud.

She punched Widow in the cheek, then under her head, and again in the temple, trying to push her back as much as possible. However, Widow dug her mechanical heels in the ground, barely budging. She kicked Amélie in the chest, then punched her in the nose, much like she'd done before. Amélie rolled to the ground, stunned. She was about to get back up when a metal foot planted itself on her belly, pressing her down, and the barrel of her own rifle was placed against her forehead. Widowmaker looked down at her with cold amber eyes. Amélie took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Well, it wasn't such a bad end after all.

She moved her hand and felt something cold against it. She closed her fingers around it. Was it? It was impossible. She didn't hesitate. She picked up Neelam's dagger, still dripping with purple blood, and stabbed the mechanical ankle, right where she knew the weakest part to be. She pulled out the dagger, and Widowmaker fell to her knee, losing the connection to her foot. Amélie pushed herself up and stabbed her in the throat. Widowmaker's eyes grew wide as she felt the cold blade go through her skin. Purple blood escaped her lips in a gurgle. Amélie twisted the blade, then pulled it out. Widowmaker fell to the ground, chocking in her own blood. Amélie took in a deep breath. She stood up and waited. She watched as every wisp of life left the clone's eyes, as her chest rose and fell for the last time, as the light behind her eyes died down. And she had never felt more alive. She sighed, and it turned into a full on laugh. She needed it right now, just a second to breathe. She looked at her rifle on the ground and left it there. She safely placed the purpled tainted dagger at her belt and rubbed the blood off her hand as best as she could. Now, to burn this place down.


	9. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Neelam was so tired of her hospital bed, she'd fallen asleep in it. Most of the wing was occupied by Overwatch members anyway, and those who weren't severally wounded were occupying one room or another, visiting old friends. Her moms had left her right before she'd fallen asleep to do something, she couldn't remember what. However, when she'd reopened her eyes, there was someone else standing in the corner of her room.

"You took your time," Neelam said before yawning.

Amélie smirked.

"I've been busy."

"Yeah, me too. I got a ten-hour operation to take all the small pieces of metal out of my arm and put my bone back in place."

Neelam showed off the plaster covering the entirety of her left arm, from palm almost to shoulder. It was already covered with drawing and signatures from everyone she'd helped saved, or at least everyone who could walk.

"To be fair, the doctor suggested we just cut it, but when he saw the look on my mother's face, he thought it over."

"You should be out soon."

"Tomorrow."

"What will you do?"

"Well first, go back to school. I still have an essay on The Scarlet Letter to hand in. That's 1500 words, and writing the title 500 times doesn't work. I've tried before."

Amélie smiled.

"What about you?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well, right now, you can start by signing my plaster."

Amélie shook her head, but Neelam insisted:

"Come on! I literally owe you my life. At least write your name!"

Neelam made a pen appear out of nowhere and handed it in Amélie's direction.

"Come on!"

Amélie sighed and moved to sit beside Neelam. She took the pen and found a spot on her forearm. Shakily, with a bit of trouble, she managed to sign her name. Amélie. It was enough. It made Neelam smile.

"Thank you for the babysitting. Next time I need someone, I'll know who to call."

"Please, refrain from calling me. You and all of the others. I do not want to see any of you ever again."

"Oh, we like you too."

Amélie stood up and moved to walk away from the bed. Behind her, Neelam continued:

"The annual Overwatch barbecue is in, like two months. If you're not into grown-ups discussion you can join our D&D group! Wei's DM, I'm a Rogue."

Amélie shook her head and quickly exited the room hiding her smile. However, on the other side of the door, she found Sombra leaning against the wall, waiting for her with a smirk.

"Hope you didn't come back to finish the job."

"Honestly, I should have. Your daughter is an annoyance. Worst than the orange British one."

Sombra chuckled.

"Hey, thank you for keeping an eye on them. They'd probably all be dead without you."

"They barely needed me."

"That is a very big lie. Lies are supposed to be my thing."

"What can I say? I spent far too much time with your spawn. She's a pitiful influence on everything she touches."

"She's amazing, I know. She'll do amazing things one day."

"On that, we can both agree."

* * *

A/N: Hi guys! So this was the end of the story! I hope you enjoyed it! It is not excluded that I write a sequel some day, but not right now. I'm going to be very busy for the next two months I think. Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you for following till the end, and for leaving favorites and reviews, so thank you! Have a nice week you guys!


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